Saturday road ride to Nutcracker Fremington inc The Stang

Today was the final round of the Nutcracker mtb series @ Fremington, N Yorkshire. Arrans race was at midday so me and Angus got dropped off at Scotch Corner for a less direct road ride to Fremington via The Stang! Its been a couple of years since we have done this route and is nearly all on very quiet country back lanes / roads. Today the sun was shinning, well not all the time, light rain showers but the biggest killer was the 30mph head wind for nearly 22miles. The Stang is hard work when there is no wind but today it was a full on headwind all the way up, at the top you were nearly blow off your feet. The descent down the other side was a pedal job otherwise we would have been blown backwards up the hill. Its wasnt until 1/2 way down the final descent to Reeth with finally got a good tail wind but we were only 3 miles away from Fremington at that point! We missed Arran racing and the wind was still blowing, cloudy and a rain shower started so jumped in for a lift back to Richmond to do some shopping. Below a few pics from the ride

A CX bike would have been a better option for this lane!

Plenty of debris washed off the fields from the recent storms on this lane

Quick drink stop next to the old phone / post boxes

Coming to the top of the first climb section on the stang

Nearly at the top of the second section of the stang

Passed a bloke pushing up, he looked tired

Then it was Angus's turn to pass him

Then he passed us as we took a photo at the top

Check out the TDF bike still on top of the wall

All quiet at the Nutcracker signing on tent